Friday, 21 June 2013

On Sunday, Twinkle Troughton and I will be flying out to Vienna to prepare for our exhibition at Galerie Michaela Stock, due to open on Thursday 27th June.

An Excerpt from the press release:

The
title for our exhibition was inspired by the painting AnAllegory of Avariceby Albrecht Dürer
(1507) which is in the Kunsthistorisches museum in Vienna. The painting serves
as a warning at both the transience of life and the ultimate worthlessness of
earthly fortune; it is one of many known paintings under the same title, all
warning of greed and its consequences.

Here
the word 'Affluence' replaces ‘Allegory’ which offers insight into the
narrative of the exhibition. Allegory is certainly relevant to some of the
pieces, but ‘affluence’ reflects the hopeful references within their works as
well as the critical and questioning aspect. We live in an affluent world, but her
wealth lies in the hands of the fewest. And the artists do not believe
affluence and wealth to be negative, but that it is used in the wrong way.

With
greed being a pivotal starting point to many of Tinsel and Twinkle’s own works, and as well as being an urgent current global issue, this
title highlights our repetitive history and how art reflects yet challenges
life, both now and centuries ago.

As well as exhibiting their
individual paintings, the duo is heading to Vienna to stage their collaborative
piece ‘The Bank of Twinkle and Tinsel’. Following on from their 2012 ‘Mini
Retrospective’ exhibition and notorious Kidnapped Banker stunt in London, the
exhibition at Galerie Michaela Stock will be the first time the artists have
shown work in and taken their art performance works to Vienna.

During a two week residency with
the gallery, Twinkle and Tinsel will be setting up their Bank of Twinkle and
Tinsel in public spaces to continue trading in their currency of thoughts,
where passers-by will be able to write their thoughts on the global economy on
bespoke T&T bank notes (pictured above) and receive a T&T banknote
stamped and dated in return. The bank will also be open in the gallery during
the opening night and visitors can participate.

You can read all about the progress of The Bank of Tinsel & Twinkle on our blog here:

We have produced a catalogue for the Affluence & Avarice show, the artist Graham Crowley has written an essay to accompany the exhibition, a distinguished painter and previously the professor of painting at the Royal College of Art, he has boundless knowledge and energy! It has been wonderful working with Graham on this project and we are delighted that his text will accompany the show. I will be posting the full text on here shortly, you can also read it here on the Tinsel & Twinkle blog.

I will be exhibiting several brand new paintings, all based on the theme of Greed. My work has changed drastically over the past couple of years (more on that another time!), I am still a long way off from having a body of work which represents a new style, approach and ideas, but it's wonderful to finally be exhibiting the very small beginnings.

Thankyou Galerie Michaela Stock for inviting us to exhibit with you! We can't wait to show our work to a completely new and different audience.

Monday, 3 June 2013

It's been a busy couple of weeks getting everything ready for the Art Car Boot Fair! Me and Twinkle Troughton have been invited to run a collaborative stall this year, and we can't wait to bring The Bank of Tinsel and Twinkle to the crowds at The Art Car Boot. I’ve been going to the Art Car Boot for many years, and always loved
it! It’s really good
fun, it’s usually glorious sunshine and there is a buzzing, busy
atmosphere.It is
always jam packed with amazing artists selling their work, it’s a brilliant
opportunity to meet the artists and in that way it really is unique. We are so excited about running a stall
there! It’s something we have wanted to
do for ages.

The Bank of Tinsel & Twinkle at Ridley Road Market, taken by Phil Whitby

We will be running our bank, read more about that on our blog here: http://thebankoftinselandtwinkle.wordpress.com/tag/bank-of-twinkle-tinsel/We will be distributing our bespoke Tinsel & Twinkle bank notes, and asking passers by to contribute their thoughts about the economy by writing them onto the notes. The ethos of our bank is about sharing and exchange, it is a creative arena in which people can express their thoughts, opinions and feelings about what is going on with the global economy right now. If you give us one of your thoughts, we will give you another written on a bank note, so people get to keep a little artwork and part of the Bank.

We will also be selling our prints at the Art Car Boot, and we will both be releasing brand new prints on the day, these are of the new paintings we have made for our forthcoming show in Vienna at the end of June.Mark at Atom Printing has done an amazing job as always:

And finally we are also releasing our first ever collaborative print to coincide with our Bank. Reflecting the ethos of the bank, it is a mathmatical sum which calculates that if we were all a little less greedy and more willing to share that affluence could be enjoyed by all. These are A4 giclee prints on german etching paper, they will be on sale for £20 each with 20% from each print sale going to the Art Car Boot chosen charity Just For Kids Law